Re: How to make an application non-executable?
Re: How to make an application non-executable?
- Subject: Re: How to make an application non-executable?
- From: Scott Anguish <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:30:19 -0400
On Jul 16, 2004, at 3:15 PM, Bill Cheeseman wrote:
I'm looking for an easy way to make an application non-executable, for
example, by compressing or encrypting it. Any ideas?
Here's the scenario: I plan to distribute a "master" application
inside a
"setup" application's bundle, to make one-file drag-installation
possible.
what a stunningly brilliant idea! you should give the person who
suggested that a big chunk of change.
But I want to be sure that the "master" app remaining inside the
"setup" app
is never executed, no matter what means is used to run the copy.
change the executable bit so it is off,
I'm worried that Cocoa's launch-by-filename methods might accidentally
run
the "master" app; or, if I change the file name, that Cocoa's new
launch-by-identifier methods might launch the "master"; or that an
AppleScript 'tell' statement might launch the "master"; or, worst of
all,
that some method I don't even know about might launch the "master."
One technique would be to make sure that the modification date of the
copy
is always newer than the modification date of the "master" -- if I can
really count on the documentation, which seems to say that a newer
application is always run in preference to an older clone. Another
technique
would be to change the file extension from ".app" to something else,
but I'm
worried that launch-by-name or other routines might nevertheless
launch it,
perhaps based on creator information inside its bundle or whatever. A
draconian technique would be to compress or encrypt the "master" --
but I
don't see any easy Cocoa (or Carbon, for that matter) compression or
encryption methods, and I don't want to have to learn how to write
routines
to compress or encrypt it using a command-line tool (unless that is
really
easy).
actually, using unzip would be a simple piping operation.. so that'd
be easy. The other advantage to that approach is that a user would
really have to go to great lengths to mess up the protected original
(and you could CRC it as well)
or you could look at file wrappers and using the flattened mode of
those...
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